Turning into a corner at the correct moment makes cornering much easier, but there are a few tricks to getting it spot on.
How’s counter steering work?
It’s a known fact that counter steering is the way that motorcyclists get their bikes to lean in to corners, and it’s basically when you apply pressure on one side of the handlebars in order to turn the opposite way.
For example, to turn left, you first apply pressure on the left (inside) handlebar and this causes the bike to fall to the left and allows you to carry greater corner speed with the added lean angle.
A lot of inexperienced riders believe that if you are to turn left you should steer the bike’s front wheel in that direction by pushing on the right handlebar, but that’s not correct and is why counter steering is such a vital part of riding bikes – from bicycles and dirt bikes, all the way to sportsbikes and cruisers.
If we were to ride around at walking speed in a car park then yes, steering the front wheel is the correct method because you won’t be needing lean angle to turn, but at speed lean angle is required and counter steering comes into play.
It’s worthy to note that what we mean by pushing on the handlebar isn’t a big shove by any means. It’s a slight weight that the majority of will be applied as you get your body position into cornering mode.
Go out and try it, you’ll pick up on it right away, and will understand the foundations of steering better than ever.
One of the most common mistakes that participants at my Road Race Performance Academy make is turning into corners too early. No matter what circuit we are coaching at or what level of riders we are working with, it seems that a human being’s natural reaction is to turn into most corners too soon.
We are all guilty of turning into corners too early at times, but in my experience as soon as I realised my error and consciously told myself to steer into the turns that little bit later it turned my riding around.
A major part of the problem that causes riders to turn in too early is simply the speed that we can process information. When you are travelling at speed it is much more difficult to gauge exactly where you are at, meaning sometimes it feels like you’re going to run wide if you don’t turn quickly, but the reality is that we most usually can turn later than what we think.
A popular part of our RRPA curriculum includes two laps behind our coaches at the beginning of each and every session in order to help participants pick up the lines that our coaches take and cement them into students’ heads.
The problem is that most riders don’t feel comfortable turning where our coaches turn. Feedback from the students is usually that they couldn’t possibly make the corner at speed if they turned in where the coaches turn, but it is possible because our coaches (and most experienced track riders) achieve it lap after lap.
Here’s the key. To turn in at speed later than what you usually would is achieved by getting more aggressive on the bike, which will cause you to counter steer more and make the motorcycle turn faster.
You see, we all counter steer to give the bike lean angle, and doing it much more aggressively will cause the bike to lean into the turns faster and steer at a greatly increased rate.
Now you may ask how is it possible to counter steer more aggressively? In theory, when you lean into a corner and position your head off to the inside of the windshield with your shoulder weighted and pointed forward (see this Moto Coach on Body Position), counter steering is automatically happening due to the weight applied on the inside handlebar (see sidebar to find out how counter steering works).
What this means is that if you move around and shift your body weight more quickly on the bike when setting up for a corner, you will automatically apply more weight on the inside handlebar quicker as you begin to lean the bike into the corner.
You won’t notice any difference as far as how much weight you put on the inside ’bar when you do get more aggressive, although it’s only the slightest bit of weight that needs to be pushed on the ’bar in order for you to begin to steer faster and apply lean angle quicker as you enter the corner.
It sounds quite technical in print when reading this, but the simple method is to get on your bike and begin to move around on the bike at a more rapid rate, even exaggerating your upper body position movement, and you will instantly begin to feel the bike react quicker on turn in.
The benefits after learning to counter steer quicker is that you can now turn in later to the corners, enabling you to go from upright to leaned over quicker than ever before. It takes time to totally adjust and get comfortable, although once you learn you’ll truly reap the rewards.
Steering into the corners later essentially opens up the exit of the corner if you turn fast enough and still make the apex, which allows you to line yourself up for the exit and accelerate faster and safer as this technique allows you to finish off the corner and sit the bike up earlier.
If you don’t get more aggressive on turning and try to use later turn points, you’ll soon find yourself frustrated and running wide on almost every corner that you attempt – which is no fun for anybody.
A shortcut to being able to turn in later and still make the corner is by slowing down and taking it easier as you brake on the way in to the turn, although you ultimately want to go fast both in to and out of corners, so do yourself a favour and learn to counter steer quicker.
Results won’t happen overnight, but experiment and you’ll soon be turning in as late as the racers that you see on television.